Alijah Arenas scored 24 points, including a spinning layup in traffic with 0.7 seconds remaining, as Southern California overcame a 12-point second-half deficit and rallied for a 77-75 victory over Penn State in Big Ten Conference play at University Park, Pa.

Kam Woods scored 13 points with nine assists and Ezra Ausar also had 13 points as USC (18-6, 7-6 Big Ten) extended its winning streak to three games. It is the first time the Trojans have won three consecutive games in Big Ten play since joining the conference last season.

It was USC’s third conference victory this season when rallying from a deficit of at least 10 points. The Trojans, who were playing without leading scorer Chad Baker-Mazara (knee), also overcame double-digit deficits to defeat Oregon and Wisconsin.

Freddie Dilione V scored 23 points and Josh Reed added 17 for Penn State (10-14, 1-12), who have dropped consecutive games after their first Big Ten victory Feb. 1 against Minnesota. Ivan Juric scored 13 points after missing the previous two games.

Penn State took its first double-digit lead at 48-38 with 18:09 remaining on a jumper from Dilione. A dunk from Dilione less than a minute later put the Nittany Lions up 50-38.

Penn State still led 53-42 with 15:56 left when USC began to close the gap with a 9-0 run that cut the deficit to 53-51 with 12:55 remaining. USC jumped on top 56-55 on a three-point play from Woods with 10:56 left.

Arenas, who scored the Trojans’ last eight points, was playing his sixth college game after starting the season for USC with a knee injury. He combined to score 30 points over his first four games before a breakout 29-point game against Indiana in a home victory Tuesday.

Penn State took a 40-36 lead at halftime by shooting 53.1% from the floor and getting 13 points from Dilione. Arenas and Ausar each had nine points in the first half for USC, which made half of its 32 shot attempts.

–Field Level Media

HEROIC and Team Liquid each recorded a sweep on Sunday to punch their ticket to the quarterfinals of the BLAST Slam VI event.

HEROIC posted a 2-0 win over Tundra Esports in their play-in match, courtesy of 56- and 40-minute victories on red. HEROIC will compete again in Friday’s quarterfinals against Team Yandex.

Team Liquid notched a 2-0 win over GamerLegion in their play-in match on Sunday, courtesy of a 27-minute victory on red and 37-minute triumph on green. Liquid will be back in action on Friday against Team Falcons in the other quarterfinal.

BLAST Slam VI is a 12-team Dota 2 event that pays $300,000 to the winner and $1 million overall. The event opened with three days of group play — a round-robin, best-of-1 format in which each team played each other team once. The top two teams in the standings, Natus Vincere and OG, moved on to the semifinals of the playoffs.

The teams finishing third through eighth in the standings advanced to the play-in round — four best-of-3 matches in which the winners advance to the playoffs and the losers are eliminated. The teams finishing ninth through 12th in group play competed in the last-chance playoff, another best-of-3 format where the winners advanced to the play-in round and the losers went home.

The teams that win Friday’s quarterfinals advance to Saturday’s semifinals. Natus Vincere gets the winner of Team Yandex-HEROIC while OG faces the Team Falcons-Team Liquid victor. The grand final will be held on Feb. 15.

BLAST Slam VI prize pool

1. $300,000 (plus $100,000 in team earnings)

2. $150,000 (plus $50,000)

3-4. $60,000 (plus $29,000)

5-6. $35,000 (plus $15,000)

7-10. $22,500 (plus $6.250) — Team Spirit, Xtreme Gaming, Tundra Esports, GamerLegion

11-12. $10,000 (plus $2,500) — REKONIX, MOUZ

–Field Level Media

Less than a month after the Chicago Bulls and Brooklyn Nets clashed in consecutive games, the teams will meet again Monday with the Bulls sporting an entirely different look.

On Jan. 18, the Bulls dominated in a 124-102 home win over the Brooklyn Nets that started a four-game winning streak. The run of success got Chicago to one game over .500 at 23-22.

Since then, though, the Bulls’ roster underwent a massive makeover, and the revamped version will attempt to halt a four-game skid when they visit the Nets on Monday night in New York.

The Nets had Dec. 3 and Jan. 16 victories over the Bulls before Chicago broke through in the season series. Seven players hit double figures in Chicago’s victory, but Nikola Vucevic, Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu and Kevin Huerter were among those traded as last week’s deadline arrived.

The deals resulted in Anfernee Simons, Jaden Ivey, Collin Sexton, Rob Dillingham, Nick Richards and Leonard Miller joining a team that was in the play-in round in each of the previous three seasons.

The Bulls are 1-7 since their four-game winning streak and 19-29 since opening the season with a five-game winning streak.

Chicago allowed opponents to shoot 53.7% overall, 46.8% from 3-point range and 54.5% in the paint during double-digit losses to the Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Toronto Raptors and Denver Nuggets.

In Saturday’s 136-120 loss to the visiting Denver Nuggets, the Bulls allowed a season-worst 57.6% from the field that included 68.2% in the fourth when they were outscored 39-16.

“The defense was not good (in the fourth quarter),” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said. “We’re going to make some mistakes. The guys are all playing together (but) guys are forgetting plays. The spacing may not (be there). It’s going to happen, but we’ve got to get much, much better defensively.”

Chicago allowed its third-most points of the season while getting mixed results from its newcomers offensively. Sexton scored 17 in his debut, Simons and Richards added 15 apiece, while Guerschon Yabusele finished with 12 and Ivey had 10. The seven newbies who played combined for 17 assists and 12 turnovers while shooting 42.2% (27 of 64) from the field.

The Nets are 4-18 over their past 22 games, but coming off one of their better showings of late to create the rare opportunity for consecutive victories. On Saturday, the Nets took control in the first quarter, led by as many as 34 and recorded a 127-113 home victory over the Washington Wizards, who suited up eight available players.

Brooklyn scored 80 points in the first half, its most since a 91-point opening half against the Golden State Warriors on Dec. 21, 2022. The Nets shot a season-best 54.9%, scored a season-high 66 points in the paint and tied a season-best with 36 assists.

“The message was there shouldn’t be distractions anymore, and this is who we are,” Brooklyn rookie Danny Wolf said. “Guys did a great job buying into the game plan.”

Michael Porter Jr. led seven in double figures with 20 of his 23 points in the first half. Day’Ron Sharpe tied a season-high with 19 points while the Nets saw three of their five rookies reach double figures.

Wolf finished with 16, Nolan Traore added 15 while starting in the backcourt with fellow rookie Egor Demin and Ben Saraf finished with 10.

–Field Level Media